Edison Laboratory Complex: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Thomas Edison National Historical Park
Commisso M. 2025. Edison Laboratory Complex: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Thomas Edison National Historical Park. Cultural Landscapes Inventory Report. 975695. National Park Service. NPS Northeast Regional Office, Boston, Massachusetts / CRIS-CL Database
As part of Thomas Edison National Historical Park, the Edison Laboratory Complex, hereafter Laboratory Complex, is located in the township of West Orange, New Jersey, approximately one mile east of the Glenmont Estate, Thomas Edison’s home in Llewellyn Park. The Laboratory Complex, situated within an urban landscape dominated by residential and light industrial buildings, consists of 5.58 acres of historic (3.19 acres) and non-historic (2.39 acres) land. The historic portion of the complex contains the Edison Laboratories site, and a portion of Edison’s original National Phonograph Works property. These parcels of land were once collectively part of a larger complex called the West Orange Plant. The historic portion of the property is dominated by several one to three story masonry and concrete buildings and structures including the Main Laboratory, Power House, Physics Laboratory, Chemical Laboratory, Chemical Storage/Pattern Shop, Metallurgical Building, Black Maria, Water Tower, Underground Storage Vault, and three smaller vaults, linked together by paved corridors and a courtyard. The remainder of the historic area is mostly open lawn with a few plantings of hedges and trees. The non-historic parcel, referred to as the Maintenance Area, is located adjacent to the Laboratories across Main Street and includes a maintenance building and visitor parking. Following the designation of the Glenmont Estate, the home of Thomas and Mina Edison, as Edison Home National Historic Site in 1955, the Edison Laboratories site was established as the Edison Laboratory National Monument in 1956. The Glenmont Estate and the Laboratories were both redesignated as Edison National Historic Site in 1962, and later changed to Thomas Edison National Historical Park in 2009.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Commisso, Michael
- Date of Issue
- 2025
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- EDIS , NER
- Keywords
- 1914, Chemical Laboratory, Designed Landscape, Edison Laboratories, Edison Laboratory Complex, Essex County, FIRE, Glenmont Estate, Inventor, Llewellyn Park, Metallurgical Building, National Phonograph Works, New Jersey, Physics Laboratory, Production, research laboratory, Science and Industry, Technology (Engineering and Invention), Thomas Edison, Underground Storage Vault, Urban Park, water tower, West Orange, West Orange Plant